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Papal Succession in CKII

I have a question that I can't find the answer to in any guide.

How is the next pope determined? Where does he come from?

If I recall correctly, In CK1: Deus Vault, the new pope is randomly picked from the top 3 pious bishops or archbishops in the world. Once elected, The Bishop's Bishopric (county) or Archbishopric (duchy) is given back to its liege and the new pope and his entire court move to Rome.

And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.

Well, most of the real medieval popes were Italian 'nobodies'. If you load up in 1337 and check the History tab of the Papacy, you'll see that very few of them actually have any interesting background at all, so as far as 'realism' goes, it's better than CK1 appointing people from all over the world.

Rulers bribing Cardinals to change their votes (deeper pockets wins)
Spymasters assasinating Cardinals
Chancellors or Chaplains trying to influence Cardinals
Deadlocked Conclaves
New Pope indebted to the ruler who supported him or new Pope enraged with the ruler who opposed his election (that could make a nice chain event)
Cardinals being bribed to elect an Antipope

And many many more

Also roughly the same events could apply to Orthodoxs too if a Patriarchal election system applied there...

Well, most of the real medieval popes were Italian 'nobodies'. If you load up in 1337 and check the History tab of the Papacy, you'll see that very few of them actually have any interesting background at all, so as far as 'realism' goes, it's better than CK1 appointing people from all over the world.

Of course, it is a terribly boring system CKII has.

True enough, few Popes of the day came from "Great Dynasties" but the Avignon Papacy (1309-1376) is a good example to show that secular leaders did meddle in the papal election and affairs as much as they could, to say nothing of the constant struggles between the Papacy and the Emperor... and the anti-pope system hardly reflects any of that.

True enough, few Popes of the day came from "Great Dynasties" but the Avignon Papacy (1309-1376) is a good example to show that secular leaders did meddle in the papal election and affairs as much as they could, to say nothing of the constant struggles between the Papacy and the Emperor... and the anti-pope system hardly reflects any of that.

Agreed, but you could turn the argument around: what's the use of a more in-depth papal election when popes don't provide a counterbalance to mighty kings and emperors anyway? Why add complex election mechanics to a dude who doesn't do much more than excommunicate some measly counts every now and then? The papacy in CKII has way bigger problems than popes being spawned from nowhere, in my opinion.